Founder market-discovery outreach: ask about past work, not hypothetical enthusiasm

Define the decision

Discovery outreach should not disguise a sales pitch as neutral research. Explain who is conducting the conversation, its purpose and the effort involved. Recruit people who actually perform or own the task, and plan how notes will be used before asking for participation.

Work through the procedure

1. Define the workflow question and inclusion criteria for participants.
2. Write an invitation that discloses your role and research purpose.
3. Prepare questions about recent examples, workarounds and decision constraints rather than asking whether the idea sounds good.
4. Keep research participation, product interest and willingness to buy as separate outcomes.

Worked example

The following is a synthetic example for this procedure, not a customer result or performance benchmark.

I am exploring how small service teams approve changes to their recurring report definitions.
Would you be open to describing a recent change and how it was handled? This is a learning conversation, not a product demo, and you can decline any question.

Read the result

The request targets experience rather than a prediction of future behavior. If the participant wants to see the product, treat that as a separate agreed step. Do not quote their comments as an endorsement or turn interview participation into a sales pipeline stage without evidence.

Check before moving on

1. Explain recording and note use before the session if applicable.
2. Recruit beyond only people who already like the founder's idea.
3. Preserve negative and contradictory findings.

Limits and next action

This is a research operating guide, not a legal consent template. GOV.UK's research guidance emphasizes informed participation and relevant participants; adapt the process to your actual study. Zintara does not manage research consent or interview records automatically.

Source: GOV.UK: finding user research participants